1How the Lord in his wrath

has abhorred daughter Zion,

Casting down from heaven to earth

the glory of Israel,*

Not remembering his footstool

on the day of his wrath!

2The Lord has devoured without pity

all of Jacob’s dwellings;

In his fury he has razed

daughter Judah’s defenses,

Has brought to the ground in dishonor

a kingdom and its princes.

3In blazing wrath, he cut down entirely

the horn* of Israel;

He withdrew the support of his right hand

when the enemy approached;

He burned against Jacob like a blazing fire

that consumes everything in its path.

4He bent his bow like an enemy;

the arrow in his right hand

Like a foe, he killed

all those held precious;

On the tent of daughter Zion

he poured out his wrath like fire.

5The Lord has become the enemy,

he has devoured Israel:

Devoured all its strongholds,

destroyed its defenses,

Multiplied moaning and groaning

throughout daughter Judah.

6He laid waste his booth like a garden,

destroyed his shrine;*

The Lord has blotted out in Zion

feast day and sabbath,

Has scorned in fierce wrath

king and priest.a

7The Lord has rejected his altar,

spurned his sanctuary;

He has handed over to the enemy

the walls of its strongholds.

They shout in the house of the Lord

as on a feast day.b

8The Lord was bent on destroying

the wall of daughter Zion:

He stretched out the measuring line;*

did not hesitate to devour,

Brought grief on rampart and wall

till both succumbed.c

9Her gates sank into the ground;

he smashed her bars to bits.

Her king and her princes are among the nations;

instruction is wanting,

Even her prophets do not obtain

any vision from the Lord.d

10The elders of daughter Zion

sit silently on the ground;

They cast dust* on their heads

and dress in sackcloth;

The young women of Jerusalem

bow their heads to the ground.e

11My eyes are spent with tears,

my stomach churns;*

My bile is poured out on the ground

at the brokenness of the daughter of my people,

As children and infants collapse

in the streets of the town.f

12They cry out to their mothers,

“Where is bread and wine?”

As they faint away like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

As their life is poured out

in their mothers’ arms.

13To what can I compare you*—to what can I liken you—

O daughter Jerusalem?

What example can I give in order to comfort you,

virgin daughter Zion?

For your breach is vast as the sea;

who could heal you?g

14Your prophets provided you visions

of whitewashed illusion;

They did not lay bare your guilt,

in order to restore your fortunes;

They saw for you only oracles

of empty deceit.h

15All who pass by on the road,

clap their hands at you;

They hiss and wag their heads

over daughter Jerusalem:

“Is this the city they used to call

perfect in beauty and joy of all the earth?”i

16They open their mouths against you,

all your enemies;

They hiss and gnash their teeth,

saying, “We have devoured her!

How we have waited for this day—

we have lived to see it!”j

17The Lord has done what he planned.

He has fulfilled the threat

Decreed from days of old,

destroying without pity!

He let the enemy gloat over you

and exalted the horn of your foes.k

18Cry out to the Lord from your heart,

wall of daughter Zion!

Let your tears flow like a torrent

day and night;

Give yourself no rest,

no relief for your eyes.

19Rise up! Wail in the night,

at the start of every watch;

Pour out your heart like water

before the Lord;

Lift up your hands to him

for the lives of your children,

Who collapse from hunger

at the corner of every street.*

20“Look, O Lord, and pay attention:

to whom have you been so ruthless?

Must women eat their own offspring,*

the very children they have borne?

Are priest and prophet to be slain

in the sanctuary of the Lord?l

21They lie on the ground in the streets,

young and old alike;

Both my young women and young men

are cut down by the sword;

You killed them on the day of your wrath,

slaughtered without pity.m

22You summoned as to a feast day

terrors on every side;

On the day of the Lord’s wrath,

none survived or escaped.

Those I have borne and nurtured,

my enemy has utterly destroyed.”n